Centaur Space Center

[Chiron0224]

Introducing

That's right ladies and gentlemen. The government has given a very generous grant for us to begin exploring outer space. We've heard that those Koviet bastards have already made some strides and, damn it all, we can't let those commies beat us. This is going to be an exciting space program. First of all, we plan on putting a kerbal into orbit. On our very first launch! (it helps to have a very large government grant and a crack research team). We also plan on doing a great many other exciting things such as manned Mun landings, unmanned probes and maybe even manned missions to the outer planets. Not only that, but inspired by the Greek theme already implied by the name of our great agency we will be giving our projects names like Gemini, Mercury, Apollo, and Orion.

::Some men in suits enter the room and whisper something into Chiron Kerman's ear::

Um.... Our lawyers have informed us that there is a very popular series of science fiction novels involving a space agency called "NASA" on a planet called "Earth" and many of the names I mentioned are already used for vehicles and projects in that book. So for legal reasons we will be using names inspired by Norse mythology instead. Sure it doesn't match our logo but we've already copyrighted our name and apparently copyrights are very important. ::Chiron looks at the lawyers who then shrug::. Anyhow... Thank you for watching this press release and I hope you are as excited as I am about this exciting new era of spaceflight. Already our engineers have begun work on what they are calling Project Bifrost and our own brave Jebediah Kerman has volunteered to be our first Kerbal in space.

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So that's the sort of "fluff" stuff, now here are the details. First of all here's a picture of my difficulty settings

As you can see they are fairly unforgiving. I cannot quicksave or revert so I'm committed to every launch. If there's a disaster, I have to live with it. Also any Kerbals who die will stay dead. This will cause me to be fairly cautious about my designs and use things like launch escape systems to try and save Kerbals who are in distress. Here are the mods I'll running.

Antenna range (with the option enabled that it's required for probe control)

Chatterer

Color Coded Cans

Dang It! (random part failures which will force me to get creative at times. Should breath a little life into some of my mission reports)

Engine Light

Enhanced Nav Ball

Fuel Tanks Plus

Hot Rockets

Docking Port Alignment Indicator

Final Frontier (will make it even harder when I lose good men and women)

RCS build aid

Station parts Expansion

TAC Life support and TAC life support retexture (My Kerbals will require food water and oxygen. If they get marooned out in space there will be no hope of rescue before their supplies run out.)

Universal Storage

Mission Reports

1. Bifrost I

2. Bifrost II

3. Munin I and II

Edited July 13, 2015 by Chiron0224

[Chiron0224]

Centaur Space Center Update

Before we begin discussing the outcome of the Bifrost mission, let's take a moment to cut the red ribbon and announce the official opening of the newly constructed Centaur Center. As you can see in this image it boasts a level 2 Vehicle Assembly building, level 2 Launch pad, level 2 Astronaut Complex, level 2 Mission Control, level 1 Administration building, level 1 Tracking station, level 1 research lab, and level 1 Spaceplane hangar and runway.

Bifrost I

Mission Parameters

Goals:

1. Successfully launch a manned rocket

2. Put a Kerbal into orbit

3. Gather scientific data during launch and from orbit using the Mystery Goo canister.

4. Prove that Centaur Space Center wasn't a wast of money

5. Place Bifrost I commemorative plaque at landing site

Vessel:

Bifrost I manned rocket.

The Bifrost I rocket was constructed right away with the express goal of putting a Kerbal into orbit. Jebediah Kerman volunteered for the mission with an eagerness that, quite frankly, was alarming. The rocket used three stages. The first stage consisted of two "Thumper" SRBs mounted on either side of the rocket with the next two stages being liquid fueled. The second stage was a "redstone" fuel tank (from Fuel Tanks Plus) with an LV-T30 "Reliant" engine and the third and final "orbiter" stage consisted of a smaller fuel tank equipped with an LV-909 "Terrier" engine. The basic mission profile called for the SRBs to fire first followed by the Reliant engine to get the vessel into the upper atmosphere where the last stage with it's Terrier engine would burn to achieve orbit. To commemorate the event a plaque was installed on the Bifrost I that read "Like the mythical bridge of old, may this vessel be our path to the heavens." There was a plan to have Jebediah place the plaque wherever he happened to land to commemorate the spot.

Mission Report

Here at the Centaur Center, as we've begun calling it, are proud to say that the mission was an almost flawless success. The craft performed exactly according to specs as can be seen in the photos to follow this report. One minor hiccup is that somebody at the VAB forgot to install the Mystery Goo canister and the flight just became a publicity and sight seeing mission in the end. The only other hiccup is that Jeb landed in the ocean and was therefor unable to place the plaque as intended.

Objectives:

Success Successfully launch a manned rocket

Success Put a Kerbal into orbit

Failure Gather scientific data during launch and from orbit using the Mystery Goo canister.

Success Prove that Centaur Space Center wasn't a wast of money

Failure Place Bifrost I commemorative plaque at landing site

Mission Photos

Edited July 13, 2015 by Chiron0224

[ygarl]

Smashing thread.

It inspires me to try the same!

[Chiron0224]

Centaur Center Update

After the first Bifrost mission managed to convince the powers that be that our space program was worth funding we received a pretty hefty second grant. Much of this second grant was saved by some of it was used to start a new outsourced R&D project to help us make advances in rocketry and interpret scientific data. Some of it was also used to upgrade our tracking station as our engineers decided they were sick of trying to calculate the orbit of a vessel by taking speed readings and doing calculus on the backs of envelopes. Now we will always know exactly where our Kerbonauts are and how their orbits are looking.

Bifrost II

The Bifrost I mission was considered a smashing success even though it failed to meet its scientific goals. It turns out that the government and the general public were far less interested in Mystery Goo mechanics in an orbital environment and far more blown away by the "Holy **** a Kerbal in outer space!!" aspect of the mission. This led to a nice boost in funding, but the scientists in R&D continued to be buzzkills by insisting that we are a scientific organization, not rock stars. So two Mystery Goo containers were installed on the Bifrost rocket and a second mission to orbit was planned. In order to continue fueling public interest in the project it was decided that a camera should be installed in the cockpit so that the kerbonaut could say hi to the folks back home and give interesting anecdotes about life as a kerbonaut. Valentina Kerman was chosen for this second Bifrost mission. Mission control insists that it was for fairness sake as Jebediah got to do the last one. Valentina pointed out how typical it was that a male Kerbal was selected for the groundbreaking first launch and that she was chosen for the mission with a camera on board. In protest of the blatant sexism Valentina didn't do her hair or make up before going on the Bifrost II launch. In words that will be remembered for generations she is quoted as having said "Let the science speak for itself".

Mission Parameters

Mission Goals:

1. Achieve LKO

2. Make observations of Mystery goo during ascent and also in LKO

3. Return safely home

4. Plant a flag and leave a plaque should the capsule make a solid ground landing.

Vehicle:

The same Bifrost launch vehicle was used for this mission as was used for Bifrost I with the addition of two Mystery Goo containers.

Mission Report:

The Bifrost II mission was a smashing success. Every single goal was achieved. Valentina was well received by the people of Kerbin in spite of looking like she just rolled out of bed. The scientific experiments were performed and data recovered successfully (during which time Valentina became the first Kerbal to ever use the jetpack and drift completely free of the vehicle). Everything came home safely and Valentina even got the opportunity to leave a flag and a plaque. As a dig to Jebediah Kerman who was supposed to have left the historic plaque about the Bifrost I Valentina's plaque simply read "Suck on that Jeb!"

Goals:

Success Achieve LKO

Success Observe Mystery Goo during ascent and in LKO

Success Return home safely

Success Return scientific data home safely

Success Plant a flag and leave a plaque should the capsule make a solid ground landing

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[Chiron0224]

Munin I

Mission Parameters

After the success of project Bifrost the public's interest in space travel reached a fever pitch and civilian contracts began pouring in. Most of them, as you can imagine, were completely stupid. But one company asked to have a satellite put into orbit for unknown reasons. When we saw what they were willing to pay, we didn't ask questions and immediately set to work making such a satellite. The name Munin was chosen in honor of the raven from Norse mythology who, along with Hunin, scouts out the nine worlds and reports back to Odin.

Mission Goals:

1. Launch our first artificial satellite into orbit.

2. Achieve the desired highly eccentric orbit specified in the contract.

3. Demonstrate the feasibility of man made satellites.

4. Take temperature readings from a high orbit around Kerbin

Vessel:

This mission uses the Bifrost launch vehicle but with two extra SRBs mounted to it. The satellite itself consists of a HECS probe core, 8 OX-STAT solar panels, a z-1k rechargeable battery, a 2-Hot thermometer, a COMMS DTS-M1 antenna, 2 Oscar-B fuel tanks, and a 48-7S "Spark" engine. A nose cone was later added to reduce drag and some jackass in the VAB slapped it on without first relocating the thermometer.

Mission Report:

The Munin I satellite got off to a very exciting start as it quickly became apparent that the rocket was, in the words of Chiron Kerman "grotesquely overpowered". During the ascent the craft began to glow which the engineers called a "bad sign". Luckily for us, their sissy pants worries turned out to be nothing and the craft was able to gain a relatively high apoapsis very quickly and escaped the atmosphere before any serious heating damage could occur. At the point of apoapsis there was still plenty of fuel in the ascent stage so an attempt was made to use it for the orbital burn but it was soon abandoned due to an inability to properly steer the massive ship. It wasn't looking good so the ascent stage was jettisoned and the orbiter established a parking orbit as intended. After achieving and tweaking the orbit a bit the orbiter was jettisoned from the satellite and using the fuel in the Oscar-Bs and the new "Spark" engine the satellite was able to put itself into the proper orbit although it was not able to gather any temperature readings once in that orbit.

Goals:

1. Success Launch our first artificial satellite into orbit.

2. Success Achieve the desired highly eccentric orbit specified in the contract.

3. Success Demonstrate the feasibility of man made satellites.

4. Failure Take temperature readings from a high orbit around Kerbin

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Munin II

After the success of Munin I another satellite contract came in with a similarly giant paycheck and the CSC admins felt that maybe they had found their true calling. This time the task was to put a satellite into a polar orbit. The official story of Centaur Space Center is that a camera malfunction caused there to be no images of the mission. They also claim to have lost contact with the Satellite due to another technical error. Many suspect that this was done intentionally in order for the CSC to distance themselves from their first true failure *actually I didn't feel like doing a mission report for every single satellite launch but this one failed so badly I decided to include it*. Due to how overpowered the Munin I launch vehicle was the Munin II mission went back to the basic two SRB design of the Bifrost launch platform. Monopropellant tanks and RCS thrusters were also added to aid maneuvering and the thermometer on the probe was relocated.

Mission Parameters:

Mission Goals:

1. Put a satelite into a specific polar orbit of Kerbin

2. Gather temperature readings at the high point of that orbit

3. Demonstrate the usefulness of RCS thrusters for future space missions

Vessel:

Basically the same vehicle from the Bifrost missions but with RCS thrusters and a Munin style satellite on top.

Mission Report:

Munin II struggled right from the beginning. The engineering team was so excited due to their winning streak that they weren't paying attention and launched the satellite immediately rather than waiting for the launch pad to be positioned under the target orbit. A basic equatorial LKO parking orbit was established and then a long hard burn was initiated to try and correct the angle to the proper polar one. This used up all of the fuel. In order of the mission not to be a total loss the thermometer was used and some temperature readings were logged in a fairly low and highly tilted orbit. Then the CSC mysteriously lost contact with the satellite.

Goals:

1. Failure Put a satelite into a specific polar orbit of Kerbin

2. Partial Success Gather temperature readings at the high point of that orbit

3. Success Demonstrate the usefulness of RCS thrusters for future space missions

- - - Updated - - -

Smashing thread.

It inspires me to try the same!

Edited July 13, 2015 by Chiron0224